Blog-a-Thon Day 7: Rural Relaxation

Today I can't upload pictures, so instead I'll give you a few more words than usual.

We are in Iowa visiting my parents. It has been a relaxing time. This morning I went for a walk along the road near my parents' place. It was rejuvenating to take in all the sights and sounds I enjoyed on similar walks while growing up here. I saw the old frog hole, chicory plants and birdsfoot trefoil lining the highway, the field where my Mom once swore she saw a fox, day after day, only to learn that the "fox" was a plastic bag stuck on a piece of brush.

There is a little 5 acre parcel of land about a 1/2 mile up the raod where a house used to stand. Now all that's left is a shed. The old "lawn" that once surrounced the house is an alfalfa patch that gets made into hay. The east end of the yard has about 20 large hay bales. I decided to take a break during my walk and just sit in the middle of this old homestead and enjoy the wind blowing on my face. All I could see was corn and hay fields, my parents' home, and my grandmothers' home (1/2 mile from my parents' place). I sat there a long time, enjoying the quiet. Enjoying the birds. Enjoying the absence of automobile/industrial noises.

Every once in a while, a car would drive by. It became interesting for me to watch whether they saw me sitting there. Most didn't. Finally a guy in a red pick-up noticed me and waved. I didn't have time to wave back before he had gone past me. Five minutes later, while I still sat relaxing, he pulled in. He had obviously driven a while up the road, worried about that person sitting there, and turned around to see what might be wrong. I jumped up and walked over to his vehicle just as he rolled down his window to say, "Are you OK?" I was a bit embarassed as I said. "Oh, I remember you. You're Craig. I'm Dennis & Wanda's daughter. I'm alone here. My 4 kids are all back there at my parents.' I'm very happy and doing just fine." He nodded once with a big smile and said, "I understand." Then he drove away. That, my friends, is rural Iowa for you.

The day became even more relaxing. When I returned from the walk, Mystery Man and I slathered the kids in sunscreen and headed off for a canoe trip down the Raccoon River with my parents, brothers and sister-in-law, grandma, and aunt and uncle. Our kids canoed once 3 years ago, so Azael and Ephraim were especially excited to go again. Silas and Lorelai sat in a canoe with MM and myself. Azael and Ephraim rotated canoes throughout the trip. Each child had a bag of treats to keep them happy. Lorelai was nervous at first, anxiously sucking on her lollipop as our canoe got underway. Silas would shriek a little every time MM mentioned any "rapids" ahead (a few rocks, not real rapids). We lazily floated much of the time. Azael and Ephraim frequently got out of their canoes to float down the river in their lifejackets. They loved it!
The last canoe would merifully pick them up when they fell behind the group.

We rested at a sandbar at one point and our kids had fun floating down the river there. The current was strong enough that they could run upstream to the beginning of the sandbar, wade out to the middle of the river, float downstream to the end of the sandbar and be caught by an adult, and then run back and do it again. They did this 10 or more times. My aunt Linda even decided to try it!

Our one dangerous moment occurred when MM and I crashed our canoe into a rock on the shore as we were trying to exit the river at our destination, knocking a bigger boulder out of its place and onto the front of our canoe. The back end lifted out and front end almost went under. Luckily for us and our passenger Lorelai, we didn't capsize! Following the thoroughly relaxing canoe trip, we went to my Aunt & Uncle's to eat and enjoy each other's company.

The photos of this fun day will be added next week. :)

Blog-a-Thon Day 6: Ephraim Bephraim

Ephraim wanted me to share his latest creativity. First, a domino man.

Next, 2 playdough faces (happy/sad). My favorite part is his head tilt. I know, we're all thinking, "He could model." :)

Blog-a-Thon Day 5: Splash Park & Indecent Exposure

We went to the splash park in Middleton, WI yesterday. This is a concrete area with tons of fountains and sprayers for kids to run around in. Lorelai was very hesitant and refused to go in the water.

But Ephraim had a blast!

And so did Silas!


On the way home, Ephraim begain screaming he had to pee so bad, and it was obvious it was seconds away. I couldn't find a gas station, so I pulled onto a side street so he could run INTO this tree and pee. He didn't listen; instead, facing his backside TO the traffic (a 4-lane road, mind you) he relieved himself. I was mortified! And I also laughed (in an embarassed, hurry-up-and-get-back-in-the-van kind of way). Enjoy these photos, or be mortified with me. And notice the car driving by... I'm curious, when do boys learn they can pee without pulling their pants all the way down?

Blog-a-Thon Day 4: Cute Toddler - NOT baby

I almost titled this post "Cute Baby" but realized Lorelai is over 2, so really I should face facts and call her a toddler. In any case, she is cute, don't you think? :)

Lorelai sporting Ephraim's backpack.

Lorelai eats her corn on the cob rather uniquely.

Nothing is more fun than pushing dolls around in the stroller.

Lorelai put on her own costume from the costume box the other day. I laughed a lot to see this dinosaur giraffe combo.

Lorelai enjoying a cupcake at Ephraim's water party for his birthday.

Blog-a-Thon Day 3: New Room

With #5 on the way (I'm 20 weeks now!) we will be needing more space, so we finally decided to use the "train room" in the basement as a bedroom for Azael & Ephraim. Here are photos of their new pad:

A sweet closet-there is an equal amount of space and even more shelving on the left behind the doors.

For now, Silas is all alone in his room. He seems fine with it. This week Mystery Man is painting these boring walls a friendlier/happier color, then Lorelai will move in with Silas. The goal is to complete these "moves" now so everyone is settled at new baby time. Also, I don't want to be doing any renovating in the last trimester!

Blog-a-Thon Day 2: Ephraim's Birthday with the Fam

Last week Ephraim turned 6. We celebrated the event as a family with cake and ice cream, followed by gifts (wow, how unusual we are).

Blowing out the candle...

Cutting the cake with a honkin' big butcher knife. Mystery Man, have you heard of safety?

The Birthday Boy is all smiles.


Lorelai loves birthdays. It's all about the cake.

Ephraim opens gifts while everyone looks on. He got Lego, a Magic Set, and a Game.

Stoic Silas sports 3 injuries. One is the bruise in the middle of his forehead. Two other injuries were separate incidents that probably needed stitches, but I used the OTC glue instead. That stuff rocks! Each injury involved one of his brothers and didn't result in any crying. In fact, I only noticed one of the "almost needs stitches" injuries when I saw blood on his face. He had tried to cover it himself with a bandaid. [I thought he would outgrow his injury-prone nature by now. The emergency room has begun keeping tabs on us.] :)

Ephraim finishes opening the gifts.

Our family. Yes, I look that good every day. [You're saying, "Jen, have you heard of a comb?"]

Blog-a-Thon Day 1: Last Day of School

Today begins our weeklong "Blog-a-Thon" with one new blog entry daily! I'm a bit behind, so we'll begin 10 days ago with the last week of school.

Azael and Mrs. McGrath, his morning teacher. He looks thrilled to be taking this photo.

Azael and his friend Cole.

Azael, some friends, and his afternoon teacher, Mrs. Murphy.



Ephraim's final kindergarten program. He's ducking down in the back. Feeling shy?

The kindergarteners perform. SO cute! I felt teary-eyed the whole time. Just hormones. :)

Ephraim receives his kindergarten diploma from his teacher, Mrs. Nelson, and the student teacher, Mrs. Gulden. He loved them both so much! They are fantastic!

Mrs. Nelson, Mrs. Gulden, & Ephraim.

So school is out now. I enjoy not having to rush them to school each morning. I learned two important lessons the first week without school:

1. Do less than I planned.

2. Never take all 4 shopping. Never. Never. Never.

Anyone want to volunteer to take a child or two once in a while so I can buy food? I'll pick up your groceries, too...

A New Form of Soccer?

Earlier in June, Epraim had his last soccer game. It was a cold & rainy day. His team did not win by any stretch of the imagination, but they scored some goals and had some fun.

Lorelai and Mom weathering the weather.

There was a firetruck at the game (it was a big tournament, actually). Our kids enjoyed climbing on and in it. Here is Azael wearing the headphones. They loved this!

OK, as the season has progressed, Ephraim and his buddy Josh have become sillier and sillier on the field. Here is Ephraim practicing his slow motion running. (I know, a still shot doesn't show it, but you can try to imagine it).

Ephraim and Josh rolling around near the goal-DURING the game! The coach is smiling this first time.

Ephraim and Josh rolling in the goal area again. Teammate Jackie is actually trying to stop a ball (perhaps).

OK, now the coach has had enough. She's not smiling anymore. Oh, and that's Jackie rolling with Ephraim. Apparently this type of "fun" is contagious.

Ephraim with coach Andy after the game, preparing to do the "good game" handshake line. Ephraim told me something along these lines: "The other team scored 27 goals and our team scored 2. " He didn't really seem to care. Maybe he started acting silly because he realized how skilled the other team was in comparison to ours. Who knows?

So, soccer season is over. Ephraim is excited to move on to swimming. I will say that Ephraim was one of the best players on his team when he chose to actually play instead of roll in the goal area. He scored lots of goals in previous games. Yay Ephraim! :)

I Need Advice!

Our kitchen cupboards are... well, plain. We can't afford new cupboards, but we thought we'd try some new handles and pulls. I bought some silver ones today that seem to have a contemporary look that may just give our austere cabinets the "Euro-bling" they need. (that's not my phrase, in case you were wondering. What is Euro Bling anyway?)

Are these working, or should I try again? (the black ones are the old ones... perhaps you prefer those...let me know).

Spies & Blue Toilets

Ephraim and Silas were taking a bath this afternoon after playing in muddy water outside. I knew something was wrong when I heard Ephraim shrieking:

"Silas, look what you did! You broke it!"

Pause.
Pause.

"Ahh, now it's even worse. Look what you did, Silas! I didn't do it! It's your fault!"

I ran back, confident something bad had happened (just 2 weeks ago Ephraim was "swinging" from a hanging robe and pulled the robe hook clear out of the wall).

I found Ephraim tearfully pointing into the toilet, saying, "LOOK! Silas made it BLUE!" He honestly thought somebody was in big trouble for breaking the toilet. I had to explain a bit about the new Clorox drop-ins I bought. :)



Another occurrence: The police often park in front of our house to catch people running the 4-way stop at the corner. Yesterday, the "operation" became a bit sneakier. Azael came running to me, wide-eyed and excited, "MOM! MOM! It's not just police cars anymore! Now there's a SPY CAR in front of our house!!!" Speed trap? Or finally coming to get the truth about Mystery Man. You decide...

Feelin' Groovy

Many of you have wondered why I haven't been blogging.

You've asked:

"Are you still sick?"

"Are your headaches still horrible?"

"How are the carpenter ants?"

I'm happy to answer:

"I'm feeling pretty good now."

"No more headaches, thanks to ginger capsules."

"We had an exterminator spray around the outside perimeter of our home. It must have worked, because we have found a lot of BIG, DEAD carpenter ants inside along our baseboards."

Yay for chemicals. Yay for herbs.

I guess you could just say I'm Feelin' Groovy...